Silk 丝绸

   Silk, as a symbol of ancient Chinese culture, has not only woven an excellent picture in the nation’s civilization history, but also has made great contributions to the advancement of human beings. For thousands of years, Chinese silk has been known for its superior quality, exquisite patterns, and rich cultural connotations.

   There is a romantic legend about the discovery of silk. It dates back to Yellow Emperor’s reign in the 30th century BC. Once there lived a father with his daughter. They had a magic horse, which could not only fly but also understand human language. One day, the father went out on business and did not come back for quite some time. The daughter made a promise: if the horse could find her father, she would marry it. Finally the horse came back with her father, but the father was shocked at his daughter’s promise. Unwilling to marry his daughter to an animal, he killed the innocent horse. And then a miracle happened. The horse’s skin flew away carrying the girl. They flew and at last they stopped on a tree, and the moment the girl touched the tree, she turned into a silkworm. Everyday she produced long and thin silken threads. The silk symbolize her tears of sadness at missing the horse. 

   Another less romantic but more convincing explanation is that some ancient Chinese women found this wonderful silk by chance. When they were picking fruits from trees, they found a special kind of fruit which was white but too hard to eat, so they boiled the fruit in hot water but still could not eat. At last, they lost their patience and began to beat it with big sticks. In this way, silks and silkworms were discovered. The white hard fruit was a cocoon(蚕茧).

   The business of raising silkworm, unwinding cocoons and producing silk fabric is known as silk culture or sericulture (养蚕业), which has been an essential form of labor in China throughout the millennial, as China is the birthplace of sericulture. It takes an average of 25-28 days for silkworm or larva (蚕蛹) to be mature enough to spin a cocoon. The farmers put larvae into specially built frames. These provide support for the worms to build their protective and valuable cocoons. Workers are able to unwind about 1,000 metres of silk from one cocoon. A man’s necktie needs raw silk from 111 cocoons, and a woman’s blouse from 630 cocoons. 

   Raising silkworm and reeling the silk from their cocoons were ancient China’s greatest achievement in the use of natural fibers. Chinese people developed a new way to make clothes by using silk since the discovery of silk. This kind of clothes became popular soon. At that time, China’s technology was developing fast. Emperors of the Western Han Dynasty developed trade with other countries and so came the world-famous Silk Road. Nowadays, Suzhou is the generally recognized home of Chinese silk or the silk capital of China. The large range of Suzhou silk, long known for its quality and beauty, finds a brisk market in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. 

Abridged and revised from 

                                      Liao Huaying, A Glimpse of Chinese Culture, 2008